RUINOUS DARKSPAM
(☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞ Pokepaste
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1: Teambuilding Process
2: The Team
3: Threatlist
4. Conclusion
1: TEAMBUILDING PROCESS
Hisiuan Zoroark pairs with the next pokemon extremely well. Almost always serving as the lead, and outspending most other mons, Zoroark pulls a Nasty Plot, and can OHKO-2HKO the first couple of ‘mons they send out due to the surprise factor of Illusion.
As stated earlier, Hatterene and Zoroark pair well together. Generally after Zoroark’s Illusion has been revealed, or his bluff called, Hatterene will switch in to keep hazards off our side of the field. With Calm Mind it can also turn into a reliable setup sweeper.
Iron Bundle is key in eliminating dragon types with its blazing speed tier, like Walking Wake and Dragapult. Its additional water STAB can eliminate opposing fire (sans sun), ground, and rock types. However, it’s lack of coverage is a little annoying.
Chien-Pao is an excellent wall breaker and physical sweeper that OHKO’s most relevant threats, but its frailty is makes it easily revenge killed by faster or bulkier threats. Status and Hazards are blocked by Hatterene for a reason.
Chi-Yu is an extremely reliable special sweeper that comes in to revenge kill and sweep through as many opposing mons before either switching, or being killed. It’s surprisingly bulky when facing walls, and certain resisted sweepers, which is a Godsend as the less damage it takes, the more it can sweep.
Kingambit was added as an endgame cleaner that can setup and sweep through most opposing mons. The weakness of this mon are almost always outshone by it’s ability to eliminate threats (even ones that resist it’s STABs) with ease.
2: THE TEAM
Hisui (Zoroark-Hisui) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Illusion
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse / Hyper Voice
- Shadow Ball / Bitter Malice
- Focus Blast / Tera Blast
What happens when you go back in time and see a Zoroark? It gains the best defensive type in the game and an almost unresisted stab combo. Hisui is our lead and when you do, you have to lead Zoroark and Hatterene has to be in the back. Using the Illusion, you bluff Hatterene, and hope they don‘t call your bluff. If they lead
(extremely common) then you are safe until they Knock Off. After that you have to hard switch to to stop hazards. The most common leads are also U-turn 
and Volt Switch 
which both outspeed . So the goal there is to Nasty Plot and hope they switch to someone slower than you. Dark Pulse nails opposing , and other assorted dark-weak ‘mons, however you could go for STAB Hyper Voice instead. Shadow Ball and Bitter Malice are basically the same move, however if you pick Shadow Ball, you have a higher chance of getting important KOs, and you keep your Illusion intact, because Bitter Malice is it’s signature move, you automatically reveal your Illusion. Tera Fighting Focus Blast is a gives us perfect coverage and most notably nails assuming you don’t miss with that (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ accuracy. However, Tera Blast provides the same thing with the side of effect of Tera. Tera permanently reveals yourself to the opponent but does change up your weaknesses. Max Speed Timid is to outspeed as much as possible, and Max Special Attack to deal as much damage as possible.
Galar (Hatterene) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Calm Mind
- Nuzzle
- Draining Kiss
- Mystical Fire / Psyshock
Essentially a glorified serial killer Barbie doll. Galar works with Hisui to keep annoying hazards, and status off of my main sweepers and breakers. Like above Galar has to be in the back otherwise the main gimmick of this team won’t work. As a bulky setup sweeper, it is incredibly easy to setup, but obvious struggles with opposing setup like Double Dance and as well as unaware mons like 
, 
, 
, and the ever rare 
. Nuzzle is a great move, and can cause many people to quit, as it cripples their sweepers and can stop their walls from moving altogether. Calm Mind boosts its defensive stats to incredible levels whilst also boosting it‘s next move into a truck. Draining Kiss is here as the fairy STAB and recovery move. The last slot can be either Mystical Fire or Psyshock to make it more specially defensive when you can’t afford to Calm Mind, or you can get rid of special-only walls. The (almost) max HP is to maximize leftovers recovery and Relaxed max Defense makes it a physical wall. The remainder can go into Special Attack if you want, but I prefer Special Defense. Tera Fire boosts the power of Mystical Fire and gives a new type (Not generally used anyways)
Paldea (Iron Bundle) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel / Fighting / Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-dry
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Tera Blast
When you make the crappiest pokemon in existence (Okay. There are way worse.) and age it a couple thousand years you get this monster of a pokemon. With an unresisted STAB combo, and a blazingly fast speed tier, and great special attack, it can out-speed and revenge kill most pokemon. As many teams use it can come in during ETerrain and bluff 
or 
. Freeze-Dry allows it to hit the only type that resists it, water, while Ice Beam provides a stronger ice STAB. Freeze-Dry also happens to OHKO Walking Wake easily. Hydro Pump is a strong water stab that OHKOs pretty much every water weak pokemon, and 2HKO neutral hits. Tera Blast can either be Fighting, Fairy, or Steel, depending on which you want to use. I personally prefer Tera Steel as it gives it more KOs, but is still weak to Collision Course from . Freeze-dry also only 2HKOs 
and 
, who either switch out or KO with CC, respectively. Booster Energy allows it to outspeed everything but 
(if that’s even a thing???). Max Speed with Timid nature allow for that speed boost to happen, while max Special Attack maximize damage output.
Overhunting (Chien-Pao) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Spinner / Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Crunch
- Sacred Sword
Chien-Pao serves as our first dark type pokemon, and a ridiculously overpowered one at that. Who in GF thought this was a good idea? Anyways, Overhunting is the GOAT at coming in a crushing it’s opposition, however the number of pokemon in Ubers that can outspeed or win the speed tie is slightly annoying, as it makes the chance of continuing the sweep a 50/50 as to whether or not you outspeed and KO the mon right in front of you. I‘m running life orb to deal increased amounts of damage without being locked into a single move, but the recoil is annoying in most situations. The slight upside to recoil is that if you have >10% of your HP you get a free switch! I personally prefer to use Ice Spinner for the higher accuracy and the fun side effect of getting rid of’s, 
/
’s, or (albeit rarely) 
’s Terrain. Ice Shard was chosen as the more reliable priority over Sucker Punch. Crunch is our important dark STAB, OHKOing Espathra. Sacred Sword gets rid of opposing dark-type threats like Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu. Max Speed Jolly is run to make sure it out-speeds as many threats as possible. Max Attack deals more damage.
Overfishing (Chi-Yu) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beads of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark / Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Flamethrower / Tera Blast
Chi-Yu, aka Satan on drugs. With a sky-high Special Attack, a decent speed tier, and a killer ability, Chi-Yu finds little competition from both dark and fire type ‘mons. It’s speed tier, while not being extremely fast is a great speed tier for a scarfer. Dark Pulse is its primary STAB, taking care of most fire-resistant mons. will generally Tera Fairy expecting Dark Pulse and then get blasted by Fire Blast/Flamethrower. I am very uncertain about the last move, as Flamethrower and Fire Blast seem redundant when together, so I generally opt to run Fire Blast and Tera Blast. I chose Tera Dark to boost Dark Pulse, but you can also run Tera Fairy Tera Blast for some much needed coverage. Psychic provides a helpful chance to OHKO Koraidon, and is a great way to get rid of Pokemon that resist its dual STABs. Max Special Attack and Modest nature maximize the damage and secure more KOs. Max Speed and a Choice Scarf allows it to out-speed all unboosted pokemon. Generally a really great mid-game sweeper and revenge killer, however, if the damage rolls treat you wrong, you are very likely to die, as it has almost NO physical bulk and only some special bulk.
King’s Gambit (Kingambit) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Kowtow Cleave
Kingambit is probably the best late-game cleaner in the game. With an absolutely massive attack stat, an ability that gives it a free 1.5x boost to all of its attacks and a great HP stat, not many pokemon can outgun it. I opted for the bulky set over the fast set for the better bulk, as I would rather have more bulk than speed on this ’mon. Kingambit‘s strength after all of it’s partners have died is unrivaled, and it's the perfect dark type to round out my team. I chose Black Glasses over Leftovers so to deal the most damage to faster 'mons. Swords Dance is great when paired with Tera Flying, it allows him to boost his attack into the atmosphere. Sucker Punch is a great way to eliminate faster threats without a way to play mind games with Kingambit. Iron Head is good at killing pokemon that Tera Fairy and try to stall out Sucker Punch pp. Kowtow Cleave is a great way to destroy any slower pokes. I chose to run 248 HP so that I could invest 8 EVs in speed to be faster than other max HP Kingambit. I also chose it so that I can withstand more hits. Max Attack and Adamant is to deal the most possible damage.
3. Threatlist
+: The Double Dance and /
sets are hard to deal with, because they can annhilate, while still withstanding one attack, and by the time I get a 'mon out, they've already either boosted their speed to absurd levels or win the speed tie. The lack of a ground type on my team instantly makes the electric type mu that much worse.
: It can Knock Off my "Hatterene" lead and then setup rocks, forcing me to hard switch to , losing momentum and giving them a free turn.
: Can setup Stealth Rock and/or Spikes on "Hatterene" because most of them run Mortal Spin, which is an instant annoyance to whatever gameplan I have.
,
,
, (e.g. STALL): The enemy of most Hyper Offense, Stall. It can double switch to outplay my switches, as and cover each other well. Extremely hard to counter, as I have no mixed sweepers.
4. Conclusion
This team has excellent laddering, and can break through lots of difficult match-ups and basic team comps. However, I can tell there are issues, like the lack of counter to lots of, , and , all of which are extremely popular pokemon. And the lack of a good mu against stall is harmful as I witness the rise of stall RMTs. Any help is welcome, but I would like to request that you stick to the theme of Darkspam. Thanks for reading this whole thing, and have a nice day!
(☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞ Pokepaste
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1: Teambuilding Process
2: The Team
3: Threatlist
4. Conclusion
1: TEAMBUILDING PROCESS
Hisiuan Zoroark pairs with the next pokemon extremely well. Almost always serving as the lead, and outspending most other mons, Zoroark pulls a Nasty Plot, and can OHKO-2HKO the first couple of ‘mons they send out due to the surprise factor of Illusion.
As stated earlier, Hatterene and Zoroark pair well together. Generally after Zoroark’s Illusion has been revealed, or his bluff called, Hatterene will switch in to keep hazards off our side of the field. With Calm Mind it can also turn into a reliable setup sweeper.
Iron Bundle is key in eliminating dragon types with its blazing speed tier, like Walking Wake and Dragapult. Its additional water STAB can eliminate opposing fire (sans sun), ground, and rock types. However, it’s lack of coverage is a little annoying.
Chien-Pao is an excellent wall breaker and physical sweeper that OHKO’s most relevant threats, but its frailty is makes it easily revenge killed by faster or bulkier threats. Status and Hazards are blocked by Hatterene for a reason.
Chi-Yu is an extremely reliable special sweeper that comes in to revenge kill and sweep through as many opposing mons before either switching, or being killed. It’s surprisingly bulky when facing walls, and certain resisted sweepers, which is a Godsend as the less damage it takes, the more it can sweep.
Kingambit was added as an endgame cleaner that can setup and sweep through most opposing mons. The weakness of this mon are almost always outshone by it’s ability to eliminate threats (even ones that resist it’s STABs) with ease.
2: THE TEAM
Hisui (Zoroark-Hisui) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Illusion
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse / Hyper Voice
- Shadow Ball / Bitter Malice
- Focus Blast / Tera Blast
What happens when you go back in time and see a Zoroark? It gains the best defensive type in the game and an almost unresisted stab combo. Hisui is our lead and when you do, you have to lead Zoroark and Hatterene has to be in the back. Using the Illusion, you bluff Hatterene, and hope they don‘t call your bluff. If they lead
(extremely common) then you are safe until they Knock Off. After that you have to hard switch to to stop hazards. The most common leads are also U-turn and Volt Switch which both outspeed . So the goal there is to Nasty Plot and hope they switch to someone slower than you. Dark Pulse nails opposing , and other assorted dark-weak ‘mons, however you could go for STAB Hyper Voice instead. Shadow Ball and Bitter Malice are basically the same move, however if you pick Shadow Ball, you have a higher chance of getting important KOs, and you keep your Illusion intact, because Bitter Malice is it’s signature move, you automatically reveal your Illusion. Tera Fighting Focus Blast is a gives us perfect coverage and most notably nails assuming you don’t miss with that (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ accuracy. However, Tera Blast provides the same thing with the side of effect of Tera. Tera permanently reveals yourself to the opponent but does change up your weaknesses. Max Speed Timid is to outspeed as much as possible, and Max Special Attack to deal as much damage as possible.Galar (Hatterene) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Calm Mind
- Nuzzle
- Draining Kiss
- Mystical Fire / Psyshock
Essentially a glorified serial killer Barbie doll. Galar works with Hisui to keep annoying hazards, and status off of my main sweepers and breakers. Like above Galar has to be in the back otherwise the main gimmick of this team won’t work. As a bulky setup sweeper, it is incredibly easy to setup, but obvious struggles with opposing setup like Double Dance
and as well as unaware mons like , , , and the ever rare . Nuzzle is a great move, and can cause many people to quit, as it cripples their sweepers and can stop their walls from moving altogether. Calm Mind boosts its defensive stats to incredible levels whilst also boosting it‘s next move into a truck. Draining Kiss is here as the fairy STAB and recovery move. The last slot can be either Mystical Fire or Psyshock to make it more specially defensive when you can’t afford to Calm Mind, or you can get rid of special-only walls. The (almost) max HP is to maximize leftovers recovery and Relaxed max Defense makes it a physical wall. The remainder can go into Special Attack if you want, but I prefer Special Defense. Tera Fire boosts the power of Mystical Fire and gives a new type (Not generally used anyways)
Paldea (Iron Bundle) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel / Fighting / Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-dry
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Tera Blast
When you make the crappiest pokemon in existence (Okay. There are way worse.) and age it a couple thousand years you get this monster of a pokemon. With an unresisted STAB combo, and a blazingly fast speed tier, and great special attack, it can out-speed and revenge kill most pokemon. As many teams use
it can come in during ETerrain and bluff or . Freeze-Dry allows it to hit the only type that resists it, water, while Ice Beam provides a stronger ice STAB. Freeze-Dry also happens to OHKO Walking Wake easily. Hydro Pump is a strong water stab that OHKOs pretty much every water weak pokemon, and 2HKO neutral hits. Tera Blast can either be Fighting, Fairy, or Steel, depending on which you want to use. I personally prefer Tera Steel as it gives it more KOs, but is still weak to Collision Course from . Freeze-dry also only 2HKOs and , who either switch out or KO with CC, respectively. Booster Energy allows it to outspeed everything but (if that’s even a thing???). Max Speed with Timid nature allow for that speed boost to happen, while max Special Attack maximize damage output. Overhunting (Chien-Pao) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Spinner / Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Crunch
- Sacred Sword
Chien-Pao serves as our first dark type pokemon, and a ridiculously overpowered one at that. Who in GF thought this was a good idea? Anyways, Overhunting is the GOAT at coming in a crushing it’s opposition, however the number of pokemon in Ubers that can outspeed or win the speed tie is slightly annoying, as it makes the chance of continuing the sweep a 50/50 as to whether or not you outspeed and KO the mon right in front of you. I‘m running life orb to deal increased amounts of damage without being locked into a single move, but the recoil is annoying in most situations. The slight upside to recoil is that if you have >10% of your HP you get a free switch! I personally prefer to use Ice Spinner for the higher accuracy and the fun side effect of getting rid of
’s, /’s, or (albeit rarely) ’s Terrain. Ice Shard was chosen as the more reliable priority over Sucker Punch. Crunch is our important dark STAB, OHKOing Espathra. Sacred Sword gets rid of opposing dark-type threats like Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu. Max Speed Jolly is run to make sure it out-speeds as many threats as possible. Max Attack deals more damage.Overfishing (Chi-Yu) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beads of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark / Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Flamethrower / Tera Blast
Chi-Yu, aka Satan on drugs. With a sky-high Special Attack, a decent speed tier, and a killer ability, Chi-Yu finds little competition from both dark and fire type ‘mons. It’s speed tier, while not being extremely fast is a great speed tier for a scarfer. Dark Pulse is its primary STAB, taking care of most fire-resistant mons.
will generally Tera Fairy expecting Dark Pulse and then get blasted by Fire Blast/Flamethrower. I am very uncertain about the last move, as Flamethrower and Fire Blast seem redundant when together, so I generally opt to run Fire Blast and Tera Blast. I chose Tera Dark to boost Dark Pulse, but you can also run Tera Fairy Tera Blast for some much needed coverage. Psychic provides a helpful chance to OHKO Koraidon, and is a great way to get rid of Pokemon that resist its dual STABs. Max Special Attack and Modest nature maximize the damage and secure more KOs. Max Speed and a Choice Scarf allows it to out-speed all unboosted pokemon. Generally a really great mid-game sweeper and revenge killer, however, if the damage rolls treat you wrong, you are very likely to die, as it has almost NO physical bulk and only some special bulk.King’s Gambit (Kingambit) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Kowtow Cleave
Kingambit is probably the best late-game cleaner in the game. With an absolutely massive attack stat, an ability that gives it a free 1.5x boost to all of its attacks and a great HP stat, not many pokemon can outgun it. I opted for the bulky set over the fast set for the better bulk, as I would rather have more bulk than speed on this ’mon. Kingambit‘s strength after all of it’s partners have died is unrivaled, and it's the perfect dark type to round out my team. I chose Black Glasses over Leftovers so to deal the most damage to faster 'mons. Swords Dance is great when paired with Tera Flying, it allows him to boost his attack into the atmosphere. Sucker Punch is a great way to eliminate faster threats without a way to play mind games with Kingambit. Iron Head is good at killing pokemon that Tera Fairy and try to stall out Sucker Punch pp. Kowtow Cleave is a great way to destroy any slower pokes. I chose to run 248 HP so that I could invest 8 EVs in speed to be faster than other max HP Kingambit. I also chose it so that I can withstand more hits. Max Attack and Adamant is to deal the most possible damage.
3. Threatlist
+: The Double Dance and / sets are hard to deal with, because they can annhilate, while still withstanding one attack, and by the time I get a 'mon out, they've already either boosted their speed to absurd levels or win the speed tie. The lack of a ground type on my team instantly makes the electric type mu that much worse. : It can Knock Off my "Hatterene" lead and then setup rocks, forcing me to hard switch to , losing momentum and giving them a free turn.: Can setup Stealth Rock and/or Spikes on "Hatterene" because most of them run Mortal Spin, which is an instant annoyance to whatever gameplan I have.,,, (e.g. STALL): The enemy of most Hyper Offense, Stall. It can double switch to outplay my switches, as and cover each other well. Extremely hard to counter, as I have no mixed sweepers.4. Conclusion
This team has excellent laddering, and can break through lots of difficult match-ups and basic team comps. However, I can tell there are issues, like the lack of counter to lots of
, , and , all of which are extremely popular pokemon. And the lack of a good mu against stall is harmful as I witness the rise of stall RMTs. Any help is welcome, but I would like to request that you stick to the theme of Darkspam. Thanks for reading this whole thing, and have a nice day!
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